


the search

by TrisB



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Character of Color, Dark, F/F, Manipulation, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-15
Updated: 2007-08-15
Packaged: 2017-10-09 20:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrisB/pseuds/TrisB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I feel sorry for her," you retort, even though you know what Mai'll say —</p>
            </blockquote>





	the search

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fahye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fahye/gifts).



You're going to find it someday. She can't always be so dissatisfied with things, this wondrously exciting world, so all you have to do is find whatever it is that will make Azula happy enough, and she'll stop her prowl to reorder everything she sees, and she'll let you be. You miss the tightrope and the animals. You're going to make her let you be.

"She _is_ happy, Ty Lee," Mai mutters one night after you've told her your new plan.

"No, it's not true," you tell her, earnest. "People don't inflict pain unless they're in pain. We just have to find what's hurting her, and help her heal that wound."

"Ohh, no." Mai rolls over and faces the sloping wall of the tent. "I'm not in your 'we.' Leave me out of this."

"I feel sorry for her," you retort, even though you know what Mai'll say —

"I feel sorry for us," and you do too, but Mai's just cranky because she doesn't like sleeping in a bedroll on the ground. She'll get over it, but Azula won't get over her issues unless you're there to help her do it. As the search drags on, this is the one thing that's easier and easier to see.

You offer her backrubs, read her palm, brush her hair. She seems more annoyed than when you started. You go through her bending stances with her at dawn and before bed to keep her company, and when you accidentally overpower the stew with lavender you added for elation of the spirit, you overhear Mai tell Azula as she spits, "She's just trying to make you happy." Azula's scornful look is obvious even in timid firelight, and you slink lower to your knees as you scrub out the cast-iron pot.

And you wake up at dawn to greet her with a low nod.

"I shouldn't have been so upset about dinner," Azula says, stretching the length of her arm to the ground. "I'm just so stressed out from this search for the Avatar, Ty Lee. I shouldn't take my problems out on you, my dearest of friends. Will you forgive me my anger?"

Normally you don't touch Azula without permission, but this warm hug can't be stopped, and her hands clasp, too, around your back.

You're getting closer to finding it — you know you're almost there. At last she admits her tensions and is willing to let you help fix them, in whatever way works, so you try them all. Her twitching fingers point directions and every moan of joy she makes means one more barrier dissolved, that much closer to letting her release her sorrows and pains. Mai can glare at you meaningfully all she wants, make cutting remarks about your late returns to the tent after practice, but you can't even care. Azula has opened up and you're going to help her find peace. When she's happy she'll want to stop and you can return to peace of your own; any day now, when Azula lets you know.


End file.
